Overstayed Welcomes
by DragoNorgard
Summary: Hermione is stopped from leaving Hogwarts by the impending aproach of Lord Voldemort, who is attcking the school. Torn between two men, and worried by Voldemort's insistant attack on the castle, she begins to take desparate measures.


A/N Sorry if this fic offends you. I am not JK Rowling. Sorry it isn't very long.

Hermione sat twiddling with the edge of the curtains around her bed. She was the only one left in the seventh-year girls dorm, the others having gone on various missions; saying goodbye to a few teachers and some brothers and sisters, maybe sixth-year friends, giving out advice. _If only life wasn't so complicated. _Her thoughts rose above memories of Hogwarts. _It's so dumb._ _Why can't I just choose? I could easily move in with Ron, but just as easily move in with Draco. But would Draco be able to properly leave his father? Sever all ties? Did he have it in him? And Ron? Where was Ron going to get the money to move into a flat with her? And then Harry? How was she going to behave when he got called to fight? How would he re-act if she moved in with Draco? Or even Ron? If only she was a little closer to some of the girls, maybe she could move in with them..._ Shaking her head to banish her worries, she turned back to her suitcase. It was almost packed. Just a few more things:

Reverently, she lifted a photo of Draco Malfoy from the floor. It was her only one of him when he was in a good mood. It showed him laughing, one arm around her waist, and a background of hills. She smiled at the memory. They had been on the edge of Hogsmede.

Then Ron. He was standing next to Harry, grinning childishly_. They had just played a trick on Draco_, Hermione remembered. If you looked closely you could see that they had been running, and Harry's hair was even more untidy than usual.

The last two things were both delicate. First, a stunning silver necklace with a dragon pendant. Second, a beautiful golden comb with a lion on it. Hermione wrapped them in tissue paper and placed them in the trunk next to the photos, taking one last look before she closed the lid. Brushing hair out of her eyes, she was about to stand up when there was a knock on the door.

"Hermione?" Ron's voice. Then footsteps, and Draco's voice:

"Hermione, are you in there?" Hermione bit her lip and stood as quietly as she could. Then she walked towards the door and flung it open to see Draco and Ron about to start a heated argument.

"Hello! So nice to see you two having a civil conversation!" she told them, and hurried past, down into the common room, then out through the portrait hole before either of them could speak. Hearing them begin to call after her, she panicked. _I can't talk to them yet, I'm not ready! _Looking around, she chose the route with the most passages branching off it. Right, Right, Left... and then she was out in the Library, the first place they would look for her if they had any brains. _Where now? Where do boys never go? _standing still, Hermione cast around for an answer. A first-year walked up to her.

"Um...Can you help me? I'm lost, and I really need to find a lavatory...?" The girl trailed off, bright red with shame. Smiling, Hermione answered happily,

"Of course! Come on, it's this way..."

>> 

A short while later Hermione sat on a toilet seat in a cubicle inside the girls lavatory, thinking out her future. Not the cleanest of places, but it would do for now. _Ron or Draco? It's so hard. _

"Hermione?" Hermione froze in the instant it took her to realize that the voice belonged to Ginny.

"Ginny?"

"Hermione, I need your help. If you're not too busy, could you please help me? It's about Harry..." Standing up, she opened the door to the cubicle and stepped out.

"Why, do you think he'll forget you?" Ginny nodded. "Don't be silly Gin, he won't forget you. He's staying over at your house during the summer holidays, and when you go back to school he can write you letters and visit you in Hogsmede. It'll be fine." Ginny smiled.

"How's it going with Draco and Ron?"

"Terrible. They've both offered to rent a flat with me, and I can't choose between them!" Ginny thought for a second, then said:

"Let them choose. Test them. There's a ball tonight, right?" Hermione nodded. "Then have a slow dance with each of them, Ron then Draco, making sure they're both able to see you at the end of the second dance. As soon as it ends and everyone moves to the next partner, disappear into the crowd. Head for the doors to the grounds, and wait for an hour at the edge of the lake. If neither finds you, go and live in a flat by yourself. If Draco, live with him, you can still be friends with Ron. And if Ron, live with him and be friends with Draco," she smiled. "It's easy."

>> 

It was almost time for the leaving ball. Harry and Ginny were going together, Hermione had so far eluded Draco and Ron, and was going alone. She wore a long, pale blue dress, decorated by a dark blue dragon that went round her skirt. Ginny had told her she looked lovely, but Hermione wasn't so sure. After putting on a little make-up, she stood looking at herself in a mirror. Her hair was done up on top of her head, and the long thin dress wouldn't be much comfort if it was cold outside. Looking around, she grabbed a silver necklace and did up the clasp. Then she rummaged in her trunk and pulled out a pale blue wrap. Putting it on, she walked nervously out through the portrait hole and down the corridors towards the great hall.

>> 

Draco Malfoy loitered next to the entrance to the great hall, a worried expression on his face. Had Hermione gone with Weasley? Did she not love him after all? Maybe, just maybe, she had been pretending all this time, just to dump him tonight. But surely all that time spent together meant something?

>> 

Ronald Weasley stood near the door into the great hall, nervously pushing his carrot-colored hair off his fore-head. Had Hermione gone with Malfoy? Was that why she had been avoiding him today? Had he upset her? Did she really love Malfoy more than him? He wasn't particularly attractive, he knew, but surely Hermione didn't just go out with people for looks?

>> 

Hermione walked down the stairs towards the entrance to the great hall. The band was playing a jazzy tune. She almost tripped on the last step, and would have tripped if it hadn't been Neville. He took her arm, and guided her towards the door. Neville had altered a lot in the past year. For one thing, he had been owling Fleur Delacour all year, and she had been owling him advice back. He had finally overcome his fear of Snape, having grown so he was three centimeters taller than the potions master, a three centimeters that mattered a lot to him. He was a lot more like his father had been before the death-eaters had got him, and had acquired an air of happiness and charm. Grinning, he asked her:

"Could I have the pleasure of the first dance?"

"Sure," Hermione replied, and followed him past an astonished Draco, and round an equally astonished Ron.

>> 

Draco Malfoy stood with his mouth open. _Did Hermione just walk past with Longbottom? Is she with him? What the-_

>> 

Ron Weasley gaped at Hermione and Neville. _My god Hermione's beautiful, but why, on earth, has she come to the dance with Neville Longbottom of all people? _

>> 

"Are you moving in with Fleur then?" Hermione asked,

"Almost definitely. She's really nice, and understanding. She's been really helpful, and you know, there's the kind of, um, fact that we are, well, almost an item."

Hermione laughed. The music was speeding up.

"Is she moving to England, or are you moving to France? Do you think she's bothered by the fact she's twenty and you're seventeen?"

"You sound like a reporter. Fleur's moving to England during the summer, and buying a flat in London. And if Harry and Ginny can be together, why not me and Fleur? Come on, lets go talk to Harry and Ginny so we can ask them!" and he took her hand and pulled her towards Harry and Ginny. Seeing them together in a corner, Hermione stopped Neville and pointed.

"Neville, I think we'd better leave them alone for a bit. By the way, thanks for rescuing me. I think I might have died of shame if I had to come alone _and_ trip over and fall flat on my face in front of the two men I love."

"No problem." they danced in silence for while, occasionally making small talk, until the song ended. Then, "Bye" and Hermione mingled aimlessly with the crowd, occasionally dancing with Seamus or Dean, and once even Colin from Ginny's year. Every now and then she would sit down for refreshments, but until the slow songs started, she avoided both Ron and Draco.

"Hello everybody!" called out the lead singer, "We have our first request for a slow song!" Then, turning back to his band, he mouthed something and began playing. Hermione had been watching him as she moved, so when she bumped into someone she fell backwards...

...into someone's arms.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" she apologized as the person helped her up.

"My fault." it was Ron. Hermione turned around and hugged him tight, scanning the crowd behind for Draco. Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw...Draco!

"Care to dance?"

"Don't blame me if I tread on your toes." Resting her head lightly on Ron's shoulder, she began to move to the music. By the end of the song, they were less than a meter from Draco. Disentangling herself, she approached him. It was Draco who spoke first.

"Hello, Hermione."

"Hello." she looked at her feet, as if her shoes had suddenly become really interesting.

"What's up with Longbottom?"

"Nothing much, he's going to move in with Fleur." a new song, another slow one, started.

"Want to dance?"

"Only if you don't tread on my toes." At this, Draco's sad visage cleared and he laughed. Putting one arm around her waist, they began to dance, though Hermione kept her head angled so she didn't end up kissing him and ruining the plan. Draco was a better dancer than Ron. But then, Ron was so much less...moody.

"Hermione..." She started, but the song had ended. Letting out an inward sigh of relief, she twirled, and with one smooth step she moved into the opressive crowd, weaving her way through. Turning her head, she saw Draco and Ron head after her. All of a sudden she didn't want to talk to either of them. Threading her way through, she was almost at the door when someone asked:

"Hermione?" She panicked. Had Ron or Draco caught up? Hauling the door open, she ran through and into the grounds.

>> 

It was warm outside, and specially caught fairies danced in the glow of soft lamps placed around the outside wall of the castle. Hermione heard giggling coming from a bush nearby and started guiltily. Turing away from the warmly glowing pathways, she headed for the lake.

The moon was reflected in the center of the lake. It seemed strangely quiet, and the normally deep-blue lake looked like a black hole, ready to suck unsuspecting strangers in out of their depth. Hermione shivered in spite of the warmth, and drew her wrap further around her as she knelt near the edge and looked down. _I'm way out of my depth. If only I could have just chosen one or the other... Just cut one short at friendship. But could I bear to be 'just friends' with Draco? No. What about Ron? Maybe, but he couldn't accept it. And why can't they choose for me? _Unbidden, an image from a history book rose to the fore-front of her mind. Two knights on horseback prepared to fight to the death for the hand of a lady the both loved dearly. In the background, you could see the poor lady, crying her eyes out at the thought of one of the people she loved dying, killed in a roundabout way by her love for him. _No, it's got to be me. But what if they both find me? Oh god, this is so stupid! _

Hermione moved to where the lake dipped towards the bank on a small slope. She was close enough to dangle her hand in the water if she wanted to... Slowly, she lowered her hand. The water, contrary to the general temperature, was freezing. She leaned over, so a loose strand of hair dangled close to the surface... moonlight on water was so beautiful, and romantic...However, her hand was getting cold. She quickly withdrew her hand from the icy water and covered in with a corner of her wrap. It didn't seem so warm anymore, and the lights from the lamps around the edge of the castle seemed distant.

Hunching her shoulders, Hermione stopped dwelling on the romance of the scene completely. Hermione was suddenly very aware that the air wasn't getting any warmer, and the hustle and bustle of the castle had been replaced with the cold, empty darkness. She wished Ron or Draco would come soon. It was so...quiet. Not the friendly quiet of studying people in the library, but, more a kind of...eerie silence. Hermione sat very still, looking at the ripples her hand had made in the water's otherwise still surface become fainter, then disappear altogether, leaving no trace they had ever existed. _I can't stay out here all night. If only I had remembered to take my watch, I would know when the hour was up. Though it would have looked dumb. Wasn't there some way of telling the time using some charm? _Hermione's brow wrinkled as she thought. If the had been a charm for telling the time, it seemed to have eluded her completely, for the time being at least. _I wish Ron or Draco would find me soon. In fact, I wouldn't mind of Neville came and took me back inside, or even Luna. _She tugged her wrap tighter around her a waited in the stillness.

A twig snapped behind her. Taking out her wand, she whispered :

"Lumos," the light from the wand was so bright after sitting in almost complete darkness, she was momentarily blinded, and waving her wand above her head she tried to regain her sight. "Hello? Who's there?" her voice sounded high-pitched and frightened, before the silence swallowed it up. "Hello? Who are you? Hello!" _did the grass just rustle to my left, or am I getting paranoid? "_Hello!" she tried again. No answer. _Was it the wind that rustled something over there? _

"Hermione!" it sounded like Ron. Then whispering that sounded like Draco's:

"Be quiet you fool, we can't save her if you keep shouting out her name like that! They'll know exactly where we are!" _Save me? Should I shout out to them? But they'll see my wand-light. And so will others. What others? Who would- _her wand was snatched from her hand, and she was pushed roughly to the ground. Someone landed on top of her, and she couldn't help it. She screamed.

A/N: I need ideas! Who jumped on Hermione? Who are the people Draco is talking about? Why does Hermione need rescuing? And more importantly, what happens next?

By the way, this is a Romance/Drama/Humor fic. Any contributions welcome!


End file.
